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Selection Committee, Mayor to Reconvene on Former EHS Proposals

According to the city’s Planning and Development Director, James Errickson, Mayor Carlo DeMaria and the Everett High School Selection Committee recently completed interviews with two of the respondents to the city’s request for proposals on re-use of the old Everett High School on Broadway.

However, some questions remain among the committee members and there is a chance that the Selection Committee and DeMaria will decide to re-interview the two respondents who were determined to be responsive to the city’s request.

“The Selection Committee and DeMaria just recently completed interviews with representatives from the Neighborhood Of Affordable Housing (NOAH) team and the Housing Corporation of Arlington (HCA) team,” explained Errickson. “Both proposals had similar components, both proposals called for activating the Field House and the theater space and both called for the addition of other, as yet unnamed partners, so there are still some questions remaining about who those potential partners would be and how involved they would be with the proposals overall.”

According to Errickson, both proposals also included plans for housing in a portion of the original high school building and both also called for the removal of the portion of the building that was added in the 1970s to connect the Field House to the school building.

“They both actually called for the possibility of some underground parking under the field house and taking advantage of the space where the connecting building is to access that parking,” he explained.

Another component that was featured in both proposals was the potential to use a portion of the building for a new City Hall, with differing compositions. The NOAH proposal also included an option that did not seek to relocate City Hall to the former school.

The HCA proposal also included the addition of a real courtyard in the center of the old high school building, where a courtyard space currently exists, but was never fully developed because of the former use.

Errickson said that scheduling the next meeting of the Selection Committee has been difficult because of the summer schedules of those involved and the possibility that a second round of interviews may be sought to clarify some final questions, before the Selection Committee makes its recommendation on a proposal.

However, it is still the goal that a final proposal will be made to the City Council this fall.